Things will be fine, and I don’t have to take life so seriously.
Zach has to know that my heart is messed up. He understands. And we were moving too fast—that’s the bottom line. I was moving too fast. His trip has nothing to do with another girl. He wouldn’t do that to me and my messed-up heart.
When I get home, I cringe as I check my phone’s messages.
There’s one from Zach.
Zach: Where are you? We need to talk.
Harmony: I’m at Fiona’s slash my place. What about?
Zach: Yeah, we need to talk about that. And talk about lots of things. But I need to tell you about something. Someone, really. It’s been an overwhelming twenty-four hours, to say the least, and I want to explain everything in person.
Harmony: Who?
My chest aches.
I have to wait almost a minute before Zach answers.
Zach: I’ll explain. Just come to Baby Got BBQ.
Harmony: Right now?
Zach: Yes.
I shower off as quickly as I can and put on a dress. Who would I be meeting in person?
My mind races through the possibilities, but I draw blanks. Something’s off.
Jumping in a Lyft, I get out at Baby Got BBQ. I’m greeted by the hostess, but her words turn to mush as I look behind her and see Zach sitting at a table.
I stride toward him.
“Harm,” he says, getting up to pull out my chair for me. “I’ve got quite the story for you.”
“Oh?” I arch an eyebrow. My heart races, and I notice a woman’s purse on the table. “Tell me all about this fun California adventure of yours. Did you hang out with your cool West Coast friends?”
He shrugs. “Sort of.”
“What do you mean, sort of?”
A beautiful young brunette walks out of the bathroom and looks eyes with me. I look back at Zach.
“I found my mother,” he says.
My jaw drops as I try my best not to gawk at the woman .
“This is your mother?”
Zach smiles. “No, this is my sister. Kennedee, meet Harmony.”
“Hi,” Kennedee says. “Nice to meet finally meet you.”
“Finally?!”
“Well, Zach has told me so much about you in the past couple of hours.”
Chapter 29
Harmony
My jaw drops.
His mother.
That’s the “other woman” I was worried about?
And…his sister is here, too?”
“I’ll take a margarita,” I tell the server when she comes by. This is going to need a drink.
“So you two…” I glance between Zach and his sister. It’s an uncanny resemblance. Same sharp eyes. Similar noses. Same shape of their ears.
“We made up, if that’s what you’re asking,” Kennedee says.
“Just like…that?” I stiffen. Kennedee’s eyes shift down and away. I want to like her and forgive her like Zach did, but I’m also hesitate after seeing what he was going through when I met him. “Maybe it’s not my business. But why did you have such a tough time forgiving Zach, Kennedee? I know he’s not perfect. But he went to jail trying to find that money for you.”
Tears build in her eyes. “I know I shouldn’t
Zach talks me through the tale of finding her, almost not being able to forgive her, and then hearing someone playing my song.
“You know,” Zach says, leaning back. “I always used to think some things were just plain coincidences, that nothing was related, and everything is just random.”
“And now?”
He takes a swig of his whisky and sets it down.
“I have a hell of a hard time believing that at two points in my life when I was feeling especially low, I have heard the exact same song when I needed it, and it transformed me. That song you wrote inspired me to forgive my mother, and reach out to my sister.”
I nod. “That’s synchronicity all right.”
“Kind of makes me . . .” Zach trails off, and his eyes wander around the room.
I furrow my brow. “Makes you . . .”
Taking a deep breath, he brings his gaze back to me.
“Makes me believe that the universe could be good for the first time in a long time.”
I get a head rush when he says those words.
“You don’t—didn’t—believe the universe was good?”
He shrugs, putting his tough-guy face back on.
“When I would sit in that cell, sometimes all I could think about was if the universe really was good, why would my sister have gotten sick? And then why would I be punished for trying to help her? But when I heard that silly blond hippie playing that song on the beach in Monterey, everything made sense. Beautiful, fucked-up sense, but sense nonetheless.”
“Silly blonde hippie? What are you talking about?”
“I was walking along the beach, confused about a lot of things, and I saw this beach guitarist playing the song you wrote, and all of a sudden everything made sense.”
“And you think everything happens for a reason now?”
His hand slides across the table and touches mine, sending bolts of heat through me.
“I’m undecided. But you—you’ve happened to me for a reason. That much I know. I don’t know what the future holds. But a lot has changed since you’ve come into my life. For the better, of course.”
I take a deep breath as the server approaches with our food. We turn the conversation to slightly more mundane topics.
There is a notable air of awkwardness tonight that wasn’t there yesterday. And it’s because I’ve moved out—though he seems to be taking my “pumping the brakes” argument as well as a guy could.
Zach sees Andrew—who is working tonight—and heads over to talk with him. At the same time, I get up to go to the bathroom. When I come out, Zach and Andrew are still chatting within eavesdropping range on the other side of some plants.
“Harm’s an amazing girl you got there,” Andrew is saying. “Truly.”
“I know,” Zach replies. “It scares me in a way.”
Raising my eyebrows, I try to get a better look at Zach’s expression on the other side of the plant.
“Scares you? Why would it?” Andrew asks.
“Because I think I’d do fucking anything for her. I could have killed that Roddy guy. It was like I was overcome with temporary insanity. I wanted to bash his head into the floor and break his guitar when he did what he did.”
“I agree. She’s amazing. She even convinced me to go out on a date.”
Zach sniggers. “You? On a date? I don’t believe it.”
“Believe it. Harmony said I was denying the ladies of Nashville the privilege of my company. Now I have a date for next week.”
Zach laughs. “Man, there are going to be some disappointed ladies when they see your ugly mug show up.”
Andrew laughs back. “You dick. Hey, if you found a girl like Harm, why can’t I?”
I beam, leaning in a little more toward the plant so I can hear them.
Zach mumbles something else and starts to walk away.
Losing my balance, I fall through the plant and spill onto the other side of the divide, landing smack-dab on my ass in front of Zach and Andrew.